7 Layers of Heaven Cookie Bars

These cookie bars are deceptively simple to make, but absolutely heavenly! They’re always one of my first choices for holiday baking, and can easily be modified based on who you’re making them for or what you have on hand.

7 Layer Cookie Bars

Cooking Time: 25 Minutes
Servings: About 18 2″ x 3″ bars

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup walnuts, chopped coarsely

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (fat-free or regular)

1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350. You’ll notice that I lined my 9″ x 13″ baking pan with waxed paper – I do NOT recommend this, and you will see why later. I think, for this particular recipe, you don’t need to line the pan at all.

Place the stick of butter in the pan and put it in the oven for a few minutes until the butter is melted. Be careful not to let the butter scorch! Remove the pan and make sure the butter is swirled around the full bottom of the pan.

Sprinkle the butter evenly with the graham cracker crumbs. Next layer the semisweet chips, the butterscotch chips, and the walnuts.

Poke two holes in the can of sweetened condensed milk so that you can drizzle it all over the top of the other layers. You should end up with a very solid coating of the condensed milk. Top this all with the shredded coconut. The layers should look something like below.

Put the layered pan into the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the coconut starts to brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely. If, like me, you used wax paper, you can lift it up out of the pan to make your bars easier to cut; however, the wax paper will not remove from the edges so you will need to leave a “shell” as I did below. Cut the bars into your desired size and enjoy!

Hey Bill, if you wanted to skip the coconut I would say you could substitute any other kind of dried fruit, or you could just leave it off and then I would reduce the amount of sweetened condensed milk by 1/3 or so. As for parchment paper, I haven’t tried it on these but I would be afraid that the grease from the melted butter would completely soak it through. I might have used foil in the past though… that seems like it would work. :)

Ditto Bill. Use parchment paper. It won’t stick to the finished product and you’ll be able to lift it out. The grease shouldn’t be a problem. Bill makes parchment “slings” for baked goods all the time. We have a beer bread recipe in particular that gets a ton of butter poured over the batter before it goes in the oven and the grease is never an issue.